Packing Material for Preserve Fruits and Vegetables and Producing Method Thereof

ABSTRACT

A producing method for fruit and vegetable fresh packing material having steps of (1) mixing porous granules, organic material and water, (2) blending the porous granules, organic material and water until water removed to form dry mixing powder, (3) mixing the dry powder with plastic matrix material and form as plastic granules. Thus, a bag or a packing material may be produced with using the plastic granules by standard plastic producing methods, the bag or packing material with outstanding fruit preservation ability may be produced by a very simple way.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This invention is related to a packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables especially for prolonging the preserving time.

2. Description of the Related Art

Vegetables play an important part in human health. It has becomes a popular study in the modern society since ingesting fruits and vegetables provide many benefits.

Food storage equipment like a refrigerator, which is very helpful to preserve fruits and vegetables, is available. But for the purpose of displaying in the market or deliveries, the fruits and vegetables are suffering a decay problem that is really harmful to maintain fresh status of fruits and vegetables. There are some conventional multiple layered packing materials providing limited preservative function, but these packing materials still have a lot of problems that need to be solved, such like high cost, complicated producing process and insufficient preservative function.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the disadvantages and shortcomings of the conventional packing materials such as high cost, troublesome producing process and the insufficient preserving ability, the present invention provides a producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetable including steps of:

blending multiple porous granules with blend-promoting materials, the porous granules are porous silicon oxide and the blend-promoting materials have calcium carbonate;

blending organic material with gradually spraying a certain quantity of water into the porous granules and the blend-promoting material, wherein

the organic material may be bromide solution, potassium permanganate or potassium bromide; and

a dry mixing powder is formed after the majority of water been removed during the blending process, the organic material is totally or partially coated on a surface of the porous granules and/or filled in pores of the porous granules;

blending the dry mixing powder with a plastic matrix material and granulating mixed the dry mixing powder and the plastic matrix material as plastic pellets. The plastic matrix material is polyethylene.

According to the above mention, the invention has some advantages:

1. By blending the porous granules with the plastic matrix material, the packing material for preserves fruits and vegetables has an extraordinary ability to preserve fruits and vegetables since porous granules in the packing material may absorb or trap or even react with the ethylene released by fruits and vegetables. The packing bag or the packing material has the excellent ability of preserving fruits and vegetables which made from the porous granules that the organic material are able to absorb ethylene or react with ethylene is added.

2. The invention is very easy to produce and may use conventional mass production equipment to form as a packing bag, only one layer structure is required, the invention provides best test result compared with the conventional prior arts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of porous granules of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of modified porous granules of the preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the modified porous granules of the preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is the second cross-sectional view of the modified porous granules of the preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a producing process flow in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment packing fruit inside in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to FIG. 1 to 5, a preferred embodiment of producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables in accordance with the present invention has steps of:

(1) blending multiple porous granules 10 with blend-promoting material. The blend-promoting material may be calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The main component of the porous granules 10 is preferable to porous silicon oxide (silica). A surface area of each porous granule 10 is preferable to greater than 120(m²/g). Particle size of the porous granules 10 is preferable in a range of 2 um˜12 um.

(2) adding organic material 20 and water or a solvent into the porous granules 10 and the blend-promoting material, where the water and the solvent are pre-blended into the organic material 20 as a liquid solution and then blends with the porous granules 10 and the blend-promoting material. The water or the solvent maybe a liquid spray form to be added into the porous granules 10 and the blend-promoting material. In the preferred embodiment, the organic material 20 is added into the water or the solvent as a liquid form so as to increase more the organic material 20 being permeated in pores 12 on surfaces of the porous granules 10. The organic material 20 is capable of absorbing, catching or trapping ethylene, or may reacts with ethylene, the organic material 20 may be bromide solution, potassium permanganate, potassium bromide and mixture thereof.

(3) blending the organic material 20 solvent or liquid with the porous granules 10 and the blend-promoting material until water or solvent is totally or partially removed during blending process.

Partial or all surfaces or the pores of the porous granules 10 are coated or filled with the organic material 20 by gradually removing the water to form a dry mixing power during the blending process, a granular portion of the dry mixing power is shown as FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. Aforementioned water or solvent removing process may use a blending machine, such like using a Henschel to blends in about 400 RPM. The organic material 20 thus may be filled into the pore 12 or partially attached to the partial or all surfaces of the porous granules 10. To improving a process time for blending and removing water or solvent, heating means may be used. The heating means comprise but not limited to blending under humidity control and/or temperature control at range of 85˜105° C., or naturally heating up to remove water or solvent by blending process. A higher blending temperature may reduce processes time to form the dry mixing powder.

(4) mixing the dry mixing powder with a plastic matrix material and forming as plastic pellets. The plastic matrix material may be polyethylene. The plastic pellets may be produced by using double screw extruder. The plastic pellets are melted and blended uniformly for producing as thin films or bags. With using the functional plastic pellets, a thin film or a bag 50 may be easily produced by standard mass production solutions.

With reference to FIG. 4, before or after step (2), a mould-proof material may be added to be coated on the surfaces of the porous granules 10 or be partly filled in the pores 12 of the porous granules 10. In the preferred embodiment, the mould-proof material is blended with the porous granules 10 until water is totally or partially removed, and then blending with the organic material 20 solution or liquid to form the dry mixing powder by another blending process. Thus, the dry mixing powder may be form as a core shell structure as shown in FIG. 4. The mould-proof material 30 may be sorbate like 2,4-hexadienoic acid potassium salt.

Additionally, a functional material may be added and mixed with the dry mixing powder such like a bacteriostatic agent. The bacteriostatic agent may releases silver ions or zinc ions to prevent or reduce bacteria. The blending process for the bacteriostatic agent may be either mixing dry bacteriostatic powder directly with the dry mixing powder or removing the water by blending process.

Embodiment 1

First, blend porous silicon oxide (with 1.5˜7.5 wt % of the plastic pellets) and potassium carbonate (with 0.2˜2.0 wt % of the plastic pellets).

Second, blend with 2,4-hexadienoic acid potassium salt solution and then gradually remove water.

Third, blend with a solution containing 2˜8 wt % of potassium permanganate, and removing the water to form the dry mixing powder.

Finally, removes or volatilizes the solvent or water in the solution that containing the bacteriostatic agent by blending process or by blending with heat assisted. Produce plastic pellets by blending the dry mixing powder and plastic matrix material.

Embodiment 2

First, blend porous silicon oxide (with 1.5˜7.5 wt % of the plastic pellets) and the water absorbing material.

Second, blend with a solution containing 2˜6 wt % potassium permanganate, and removing the water by blending again to form the dry mixing powder.

Third, remove the solvent or water in the solution that containing the bacteriostatic agent by blending or by blending with heat assisted.

In the end, produce plastic pellets by mixing a plastic matrix material with the dry mixing powder.

Embodiment 3

First, blend a porous silicon oxide (with 1.5˜7.5 wt % of plastic pellets) and the water absorbing material.

Second, blend with the solution which contains 2˜6 wt % of potassium permanganate, and remove the water or solvent of the solution again to form dry mixing powder.

Third, form mixed plastic matrix material and the dry mixing powder as the plastic pellets.

In the end, blend more plastic material containing bacteriostatic agent with required quantity of the plastic pellets and form the uniform blended plastic material and the melted plastic pellets as the packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables by suitable processes, such as extrusion and air blown processes. The packing material is capable of absorbing or trapping ethylene or is able to react with ethylene, thus a fruit packed inside the packing material may remains fresh longer. Further, the packing material may have bacteriostatic agent therein, fruits or vegetables packed therein may further prevent bacteria.

With reference to FIG. 6, the present invention may be used in preserving agricultural products and prolong a preserving period after harvesting. The main reason why harvested fruits and vegetables rot so easily is because the fruits and vegetables release ethylene naturally after being harvested. The released ethylene increases rot speed of the fruits and vegetables. In the present embodiment, packing material comprises the porous granules 10 with organic material 20 thereon may absorb or react with the released ethylene, the pores on the porous granules 10 may trap ethylene to prolong the preservation period. Moreover, the present embodiment may also be germ-proof and mould-proof by fulfill all request of preserving function by adding various functional materials to strengthen the ability of preserving, germ-proof and mould-proof.

To verify ethylene absorbs ability of the present embodiment and the prior art, ethylene and the aforementioned packing material in the embodiment are sealed in different sampling bottles. Residual ethylene in the sampling bottles are examined at a given sampling rate to ensure ethylene absorbing ability of these tested packing materials. The packing material of the present invention and the packing material of the prior arts are sliced into squares pieces and are putted into different sampling bottles and sealed with 100 ppm ethylene with sampling rates 24 hours, 60 hours and 84 hours. Table 1 shows the residual quantity of ethylene remain in the sampling bottle measuring by FTTS-FA-018 testing standard, as the result, the preferred embodiment of the present invention has the best ability of absorbing ethylene among the other samples of the prior art.

TABLE 1 Time (hrs) 24 60 84 Regular PE plastic bag 83.67 83.4 83.2 Contract product 66.36 69.29 66.8 The invention (dry mixing powder) 60.87 58.69 52.46 Addition of the activated carbon film 62.89 60.76 59.1 Addition of the calcium oxide film 80.49 73.12 74.59 Addition of the silicon oxide film 70.97 71.25 64.34

A packing bag 50 produced by the packing material of the present invention is used to compare the ability of extending preservation time of fruits with the other conventional packing bags. The packing bag 50 which made from the embodiment has certain ability for preserving. The packing bag 50 with extra addition of Sorbate into the plastic matrix material shows better ability for preserving and mould-proof.

For mango test, use the packing bag 50 of the present invention and packing bags of the prior art to wrap mangos therein respectively. At the first day, the mangos in three testing samples are all remained in fresh. At the day 5, the mango with packing bag of the prior arts shows black spots on skins of the mangos. The mango packed in the packing bag 50 in the present invention remains fresh. At the day 10, the skin of the mangos packed in the packing bag of the prior arts turned in back for nearly 100% surface area, but mango in the packing bag 50 of the present invention only shows a few little spots on the skin of the mango.

For guava test, guavas wrapped by a PE bag, an prior art packing bag A, an prior art packing bag B, packing bag 50 of the present invention C (porous silicon oxide+sorbate) and packing bag 50 of the present invention D (the porous silicon oxide+sorbate) are compared. At the first day, all samples remain in fresh. At day 4, guava without any packing has already decomposed. At day 5, the guavas in the PE bag and in the prior art A, B are decomposed. At day 9, only the guavas in the embodiments still remain in good condition.

According to the above mentioned, the invention has advantages listed as below:

1. By blending the porous granules with the plastic matrix material, the packing material for preserves fruits and vegetables has an extraordinary ability to preserve fruits and vegetables since porous granules in the packing material may absorb or trap or even react with the ethylene released by fruits and vegetables. The packing bag or the packing material has the excellent ability of preserving fruits and vegetables which made from the porous granules that the organic material are able to absorb ethylene or react with ethylene is added.

2. The invention is very easy to produce and may use conventional mass production equipment to form as a packing bag, only one layer structure is required, the invention provides best test result compared with the conventional prior arts. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables having steps of: blending multiple porous granules with blend-promoting materials; the porous granules are porous silicon oxide; blending organic material with gradually spraying a certain quantity of water into the porous granules and the blend-promoting material, wherein the organic material may be bromide solution, potassium permanganate or potassium bromide; a dry mixing powder is formed after the majority of water been removed during the blending process, the organic material is totally or partially coated on a surface of the porous granules and/or filled in pores of the porous granules; blending the dry mixing powder with a plastic matrix material and granulating mixed the dry mixing powder and the plastic matrix material as plastic pellets.
 2. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 1, wherein the blend-promoting materials have calcium carbonate.
 3. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 2, wherein the plastic matrix material is polyethylene.
 4. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 3, wherein the producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables further has step of blending and melting the plastic pellets to produce as thin films or bags.
 5. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 4, wherein before or after the step of blending organic material with gradually spraying the certain quantity of water into the porous granules and the blend-promoting material, a mould-proof material is further being blended with the porous granules until majority water removed, so as to partially or totally coated on the surfaces of the porous granules and filled in the pores, wherein the mould-proof material is 2,4-hexadienoic acid potassium salt.
 6. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 5, said majority of water been removed is assisted by a heating means.
 7. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 6, the heating means is temperature control at a range of 85˜105° C., humidity control, or is naturally heating up by blending process.
 8. The producing method of packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 6, after blending the organic material with the porous granules and the blend-promoting material, a bacteriostatic agent is added in and is blended until majority water being removed.
 9. A packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables comprising a plastic matrix material; multiple porous granules being mixed in the plastic matrix material, each porous granule has a surface and multiple pores being formed on the surface of the porous granule; and organic material being mounted or coated on whole or partial surfaces of the porous granules and being fully or partially filled in the pores of the porous granules, wherein the organic material is able to absorb or react with ethylene.
 10. The packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 9, wherein the porous granules is porous silicon oxide.
 11. The packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 10, wherein the organic material are bromide solution, potassium permanganate or potassium bromide.
 12. The packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 11, wherein the organic material and a mould-proof material are successively coated on whole or partial surfaces of the porous granules and are fully or partially filled in the pores of the porous granules to form a core shell structure.
 13. The packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables as claimed in claim 12, wherein the packing material for preserve fruits and vegetables is a thin film or a bag. 